All eyes on the Olympics

All eyes on the Olympics

A selection of artists from 23 countries were asked to create photographic images responding in some way to the Olympics.

View the complete collection at pop-up gallery Lens on Twelve, 2 Albemarle Street, London W1, from 18 July until 9 September.

Monday 2 July 2012 10.58 EDT
First published on Monday 2 July 2012 10.58 EDT

MOZAMBIQUE Berry Bickle, Chamanculo Chamanculo, a suburb of Maputo, is the birthplace of Mozambique's first gold medal winner, Maria de Lurdes Mutola. As well as paying tribute to Mutola, these three friezes "explore the notions of home and belonging... and the contemporary complexities of urbanity in Maputo’s peripheral suburbs".

BELGIUM Marie-Jo Lafontaine, Les Baigneuse No. 3 The photographer sought to highlight the youthful vulnerability of the young swimmer and offer "a poignant alternative to the stereotypical presentations of the ‘athlete’".

FINLAND Esko Männikkö, Organised Freedom 50 Männikkö chose the work to illustrate the contrast between the glitzy Olympic site in London and the rustic, remote dwellings from which many Finnish families will view it.

FRANCE Frederic Delangle, Coit "The Games are a time for enemies to meet outside the battlefield. [They] encourage love between mankind to be reborn. I wish to celebrate this sentiment by representing the essence of mankind, the act of love."

CANADA Christopher Anderson, Marion, New York 2010 A portrait of the Canadian-American photographer's wife Marion, who is half French and half Catalonian Spanish, and son Atlas, who already speaks three languages. "My family is a sort of mini-Olympiad… a coming together of nations."

KENYA Anno's Africa's young photographers at Spurgeon's Academy, Sprint Training by the Railway Track in Kibera The photograph was taken by, and of, children attached to an artistic charity in Nairobi's biggest slum. Famous Kenyan running skills are on display here at a young age.

GUATEMALA Luis Gonzalez Palma, Silence Floats in Silence According to the artist, the work "reflects on the way certain sporting events in recent Latin American history have been employed by the government in power to gloss over underlying tensions in their countries".

BURUNDI Aime Ntakiyica, Wir Ntakiyica parodies the way nations stereotype society they don't properly understand. "The work stands as reminder of the tensions that underlie global gatherings like the Olympics."

JAPAN Jun Nguyen Hatsushibam, Breathing is Free: 12,756.3 - Pangea Ultima To mark the games, the artist "produced a map of Pangea Ultima, the supercontinent that is believed will emerge over the next 250m years".

TAIWAN Chen Chieh-Jen, Surface Chen Chieh-Jen’s conceptual piece asks to what extent do mediated images, transmitted to television and computer screens around the world, truly reflect the reality of the games?

UNITED KINGDOM Tom Hunter, Bandstand at the Boundary Estate, East London Hunter's image of this well-loved Victorian bandstand "makes an interesting counterpoint to the new East End monuments which are being built for the Olympics".

RUSSIA Gueorgui Pinkhassov, The Bright Stream "The image is from the 1930s ballet
The Bright Stream. Its naive portrayal of Stalin’s Kolkhoz (collective farms) is a reminder of how the Soviet regime used cultural events like the ballet and the Olympics to gloss over the harsh realities in Russia."

USA Matthew Pillsbury, Diplodocus: Natural History Museum London Pillsbury's image "celebrates the city’s historical cultural epicenter on the other side of London from the sleek new Olympic site [and] begs the question: what will the Olympic site say about contemporary London in centuries to come?"

ZIMBABWE Calvin Dondo, New German Family According to Dondo: "This work is part of my ongoing interest in an incentive that began in Germany in 2006 to encourage families to adopt children from underdeveloped countries. I chose this work because it deals with citizenship, immigration, migration and dual identity, concepts that – in today’s multiethnic, globalised society – have a huge impact on the way many people relate to ‘their country’ in the Olympics."